Understanding, constructing or retelling coherent narratives contribute to progress in literacy skills and are in general good predictors of school success and disposition to literacy. It is therefore important to understand the processes underlying the development of narrative abilities as well as to reveal the conditions leading the child to further develop and/or to better utilize the competences implied in this activity. The goals of this international conference are threefold.

First, it aims to report on recent advances in narrative development, focusing particularly on the development of the capacity to express causal relations, be them physical or psychological, the internal states and the different points of view of the characters.

Secondly, and particularly important for this Conference, it aims to consider the conditions that stimulate and promote narrative skills, taking into account short term and long term intervention procedures as well as educational, developmental, linguistic and socio-cognitive variables.

Thirdly, it will focus on the interrelations between oral narrative skills and children’s advances in literacy in their early schooling.

These issues will be examined with an interdisciplinary approach by confronting the points of view of scholars of different disciplines like developmental psychology, linguistics and education.

The Conference will be organized around plenary presentations, poster sessions and will allow time for discussion. The Conference addresses specialists in narrative development and literacy, childhood professionals like teachers, educators, speech therapists or book publishers, as well as parents.